Godfather Extraordinaire
by DeathandJunkfood
Summary: Lily's eight months pregnant, and it's time to start talking about godparents. Or; how James Potter asked Sirius Black to take care of his kid in the event of his and Lily's deaths. It's uplifting, really. Part of the Falling 'verse.


**_Disclaimer... these characters belong to JKR._**

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 ** _This takes place in the Falling 'verse, that was established in my Mauraders era fic, 'A Rise and Fall' but you don't need to read that to understand this. But, if you want to, I'd love it if you did! Anyways, please enjoy.  
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 _June 29_ _th_ _, 1980_

The Three Broomsticks was dim and cool. There was a light, delicate scent of honeysuckle and roses that floated through the air, mingling with the smell of wood polish and Butterbeer and old leather. They were good smells. Comforting.

James clutched a frosty glass of iced Butterbeer, (A spring and summer specialty) and watched the door of the pub anxiously. Madam Rosmerta was polishing the bar, and glanced over at him, amused.

"Who're you waiting on?" she asked, setting her cloth down. Her dark hair was pulled away from her face in a colourful scarf, and there was a smile on her face.

"Sirius," James said, starting to tap his foot against the bar rail. The glass of Butterbeer had a puddle of condensation at its base, and James absently trailed his finger through the water.

"What for?"

"I need to ask him something."

"Ooh," Rosmerta said. "Sounds _serious_."

"Oh shut up, Rosie."

"Where's Lily?"

"At home. Resting."

"Shouldn't someone be with her? When's her due date?"

"About a month," James said, fidgeting and taking a swig of Butterbeer. It went down the wrong way and he started to cough.

"She'll be fine," Rosmerta said briskly. "Lily's brave and strong. Quit worrying."

James nodded, feeling like he was trying to convince himself and not quite succeeding. Sirius was late. He tapped his foot some more.

Finally, after another five minutes of Rosmerta staring at him sympathetically, the door opened, and Sirius walked in.

"Over here," James called, waving to his friend.

Sirius saw him, his face lighting up, and hurrying over, flinging himself onto a barstool and nodding cheerfully at Rosmerta.

"James!" he said gleefully. "I haven't seen you in _weeks_."

"You saw me last Tuesday," James pointed out, grinning at him.

"Well," Sirius amended. "A week."

Rosmerta set a glass of iced Butterbeer in front of him.

"Cheers, Rosie."

He took a sip and stared at James, who had turned his head and was staring resolutely at the shelves of liquor bottles behind the bar.

"You alright?" he asked. James didn't move.

"Yeah," James said. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Finally, he moved, turning to Sirius, who looked more than a little concerned.

"I wanted to ask you something," he said abruptly. "It's fine if you say no, you don't have to-"

"James?"

James closed his eyes. That morning, Lily had practically shoved him out the door of their cottage.

 _"Go!" she insisted, arms folded and resting on her belly. It was hard for her to move around too much – she was already a bit out of breath from coming down the stairs._

 _James hesitated by the door._

 _"Are you sure you don't want me to-"_

 _"Begone!" Lily said dramatically. "Seriously James, I'm fine. Mary's coming over later. She has a stack of intercepted letters from suspected Death Eater sympathisers – it'll be fun. But if you don't leave, right now, I swear to Merlin I will curse you. And imagine how hard that would be for me. The trauma, of having to curse the love of my life. Do you really want to do that to me?"_

 _James shrugged his jacket on quickly. "Alright!" he said, hands up in surrender. "I'm going!"_

 _Lily didn't say anything, but James could see a very satisfied smirk cross her face._

He opened his eyes to look at Sirius, who was looking very worried indeed. Sirius snapped his fingers in front of James' nose and he blinked, startled.

"Sorry," James said hastily, reaching up to stop Sirius who was starting to snap his fingers again.

"So," Sirius said, still looking concerned. "What d'you want to ask me?"

"If – If –"

James felt very young in this moment. Twenty years old and married, with a kid on the way and fighting a war. He swallowed.

"Yes?" Sirius asked patiently. James felt a fierce surge of gratitude for his friend, for not pushing him to spit it out. For giving him time to think, and to decide how he was going to say it.

Sirius had always been there. Apart from those few terrible weeks in fifth year, when they weren't talking, they'd dealt with everything together. Them against the world. They needed each other, but James was still nervous about asking for _this_.

"Erm," he said. "Lily and I were talking. And we thought – maybe, if you want to… we'd love it if you could be godfather. For the baby. Lily and my's baby. Um. Yeah."

Sirius was silent and James couldn't read his expression. He crossed his fingers under the bar.

"Are you serious?" he asked finally.

"No, you are," James replied automatically, and Sirius broke into a grin.

"But really James," he said. "Are you?"

"Of course I am," James told him. "You're my best mate – I want you to be there for this kid. And – if something were to happen to Lily and me – it would just, it would just make me feel better, knowing you'd be there."

"Oh," Sirius said quietly. "Oh."

"So, will you? I mean, I know it's a lot, and if you don't want to…"

"Prongs," Sirius said. "Shut up. I'd love to. And thank you – you and Lily, for trusting me."

James slipped off his stool and pulled Sirius into a tight, hard hug, digging his chin into Sirius' shoulder and letting out a shaky breath. He ignored Rosmerta, a little further down the bar, who was blatantly eavesdropping.

"Thank you," he said. "But – no helping the baby become an Animagus until they're at least seventeen, yeah? And no doing anything that would land you in Azkaban. We need you here."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, still hugging him tightly. "Merlin. You're having a _baby._ "

"I _am_ ," James agreed, starting to grin as he let Sirius go. "It doesn't feel quite real yet."

"Firewhiskey!" Rosmerta shouted, startling them both. "This calls for Firewhiskey."

Rosmerta slid two tumblers of the amber liquid in front of them, and James' held his up in a toast.

"To Sirius Black," he said. "Godfather extraordinaire."

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 _ **A.N. Thanks for reading! Please review.**_


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